Soccer out to thrill

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Entertainment will be the byword for the A-League if the head of
Australian soccer John O'Neill gets his way.

O'Neill yesterday flagged the prospect of the Australian soccer
federation doling out cash from a $1 million "fighting fund" to
lure highly paid Socceroos such as Stan Lazaridis or current
skipper Craig Moore back to play for A-League sides.

And he also floated the notion the league could adopt some
radical new ideas - such as extra points for winning matches or
scoring goals - to act as an incentive to encourage teams to play
attacking football and draw crowds to games.

The Football Federation Australia chief executive said he could
draw on his experience as head of the Australian Rugby Union, when
he helped establish the Super 12 competition. In that league,
innovations such as bonus points for extra tries were introduced
and in short order won the support of the game's international
ruling body.

"The owners and the coaches are embracing the philosophy that
the competition is about entertaining, attacking football," he said
yesterday. "The best bit of innovation is to ensure everyone goes
out to play attacking football. The entertainment factor is
confronting - you've got to produce entertainment."

Part of that entertainment would be attracting back the big
Australian names from overseas. "It's not dissimilar to something
we did in rugby, where you have a player in an employer agreement
where he has two employers - his club and his national body,"
O'Neill said. "The club will pay a base amount and the FFA will top
up the rest."